Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Crowd was good tonight. We were a little down from our average, but that's kind of been a trend over the last couple of months. I hope it will correct itself soon, but the summer is coming and that usually means a little more down turn. Oh well, I'm going to trust God and like one of my seminary professors said, "Minister to the ones that God brings by His Spirit."

As far as the service itself, I was fairly pleased. For some reason, we keep having some technical difficulties. (Sunday for some reason, a light kept flashing on and off during baptism...I'm glad nobody had epilepsy!!) The tech stuff continued tonight. Computer totally locked up in the middle of worship so I had to go up and restart.

Worship was good but not great. David wasn't there and that takes Joshua out of his comfort zone. I know what that's like and when you have something as heavy as worshipping God in the balance. It's scary to think that you are responsible for a group of people being led to the very throne of God...and when you throw anything out of the ordinary into the mix, it makes it all the scarier. Joshua did a great job though. It just seemed like everybody's mind was somewhere else.

I felt good about the sermon. I have to say that I've NEVER preached from Habakkuk before!! That was pretty interesting. My day had been CRAZY, so I was very pleased that God spoke even over my inabilities. The truth for tonight was that "True Joy is an outward reaction to an inward reality." I like that. I'm so glad that my joy doesn't depend on my surroundings. Sometimes our surroundings are TERRIBLE. Aren't you glad that even when you're in the deepest darkest place, you can still be inwardly joyful. My God is still my God. My Savior is still my Savior. My eternal home is still my eternal home. I wish I could be content with just that...however, most of the time, I want my life to be good too. Oh well, I guess we're all human.

Anyway, I'm posting a video on youtube that we showed at the end of tonight's message. It just illustrates the thought that when our life is bad, we can "Lift our eyes" to God and He will be our supreme encourager. This will be my first time to do that, so we'll see what happens. I'll post a link (or maybe even the video) on here when it gets finished.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Ok...you'll never guess what happened in church this morning. Well, if you were there you will, but for the rest of you...

We were having our Baptism and Lord's Supper service. This is always a very special time in our church. It's always so cool to celebrate with new believers who are being baptized and having an opportunity to participate in their first Lord's Supper.

To understand what I saw from my viewpoint, I have to explain something about our church. Our sanctuary is divided into four downstairs sections of pews and the balcony. There are three entrances--one on the right side of the sanctuary (from the angle of the pulpit) and two at the back. Most people use the side entrance because that's what faces most of our education space and parking, but for some reason, the section of pews closest to that entrance is the least used. The balcony is always very full and the middle sections are full too. The left section is semi-full, but again, the right section (nearest the door) is pretty sparse.

Ok...on with the story. Today, during the Lord's Supper, we got through the bread just fine. However, I realized that during the cup, the section nearest the door (usually the most sparsely populated) was running out of juice very quickly. Now, we always have an extra supply of juice under the table, but that's usually used for one of the fuller sections (the ones in the middle). When the people serving that section closest to the door called for the extra supply, I knew we were in trouble!

Yep...you guessed it. We ran out of the juice representing the Blood of Jesus in our church this morning. So, 10 ushers were running around the back of the Sanctuary wondering what in the world we were going to do. Thankfully, we were able to just extend our time of worship a little bit and go over and get a little more juice to serve to the rest of the people.

Aren't you glad that the salvation of Christ doesn't depend on man's preparation? I'm so glad that the Blood of Jesus is available to ALL. He loves us and wants to have a relationship with us. Jesus shed His blood for us all. I was reminded of that today.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Someone named "Beppa" (I know who it is...it's up to you to find out!) left a comment on Tuesday's "Pet Peeves" post about e-mail forwards that you're supposed to forward to "10 other people" or someone in your life might die...Jesus may not love you...or the world may just come to an abrupt end.

While reading one of my favorite blogs today, I came across a post on the same thing. You might enjoy it. Click here to read. If you don't take your "religion" too seriously, you might enjoy this guy's site. Some of my favorites are #159, #108, #81, #59, and #7 (I actually owned ALL of Stryper's albums when I was a kid...and I think I still have a CD stashed away somewhere!!)

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

So I went to Wal-Mart last night to get some milk. Apparently, someone in our house likes milk. AND, since the little boy of the house like milk so much, I feel like I have to keep up the pace (however, daddy only likes his milk with chocolate syrup in it...it's become a nightly ritual.) All that to say, we usually have to buy a gallon of regular milk and skim milk every week. The skim is for me.

Ok...on with my trip to Wal-Mart. I get to the milk cooler and get some milk for Jonah and then start looking for mine. Would you believe ALL of the skim milk expired on April 23rd. I mean come on...it's already April 21st at that point. I get rid of the milk pretty quickly, but not at the rate of half a gallon a day. What's up with that?!? Anyway...just one of those many, little things that seem to get me all riled up. What are some of your pet peeves?

For some of you this may not mean a great deal, but I've always wanted to have a podcast of our worship services. I've tried several times to figure out the whole thing to no avail, but in the last couple of weeks, everything started to come together! Give us a little help in our ratings by subscribing here...you don't have to actually listen...just subscribe to help me out!

Our 1.6 million dollar Sanctuary Renovation project passed by a vote of 77 percent Sunday night. I had hoped for at least 80 percent, but when you're doing a project this big, it's hard to get that many people on board in that short of time. As I've mulled over the vote, I've realized that better than 3 out of 4 people voted for the project. That's pretty good!! I'm looking forward to the next few months as we begin our stewardship campaign and begin construction sometime around October. I'll be updating you all as we go along.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Our church is voting this week to renovate and expand our Sanctuary. It will consist of a really nice new foyer/gathering area, new paint and carpet for the existing facility, expanded platform space, new screens and lighting, and an overall updated look. I'm really excited about it. Unfortunately, it will also require us to remove our Old Sanctuary that has been standing since the 1940's. That's tough!! Unfortunately #2, it's going to cost somewhere around 1.6 MILLION dollars! I don't know about you, but I CERTAINLY don't have that kind of money!

However, if it all goes through, the picture above is what our church would look like from the front. I think it's gorgeous!! I'll let you know on Sunday night or Monday how the vote comes out!! Right now...I'm praying!!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Happy birthday to MaxHappy birthday to MaxHappy birthday to MaxxxxxxHappy birthday to Max!

Our little black child is 6 years old today. According to an online conversion calculator that means he's 37 in human years. There was a time in our lives that he was the most important thing to us. Now, he's been relegated to getting yelled at everytime he barks because he "might wake Jonah up." Oh well, that's just how things go. Happy Birthday, Max. You're our only child that we'll always allow to lick us in the face!!

Monday, April 14, 2008

I don't know if you've heard about the latest buzz surrounding McDonald's. I've heard it from several sources. Apparently, a McDonald's executive has joined the board of directors for the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC)--a business organization that pushes the homosexual agenda.

To make matters worse, before all of this came out, our church youth group already had a "Power Lunch" scheduled at our local McDonald's. Now, I'm not saying anything about somebody who's flipping burgers or cooking fries under the golden arches. As a matter of fact, at lunch today, my wife's boss was talking about his weekly stop at McD's for Sunday breakfast, and I didn't even bat an eye. It just didn't occur to me that his McGriddle and sausage biscuit could have been poisoned with the influence of a homosexual supporting executive.

My question is this...what are we to do about situations where our local businesses have executives in their company who support causes that we don't stand by? Are we to boycott the local business owners because of a decision that they had no part in? Could this be an opportunity to be "light in a darkened world?" If we are going to boycott, how far should we go? Should we just boycott the business or should we boycott the subsidiaries? In this case, if we boycott McDonald's you need to get rid of your Motorola Razor, stop drinking all pepsi products, quit sending packages by UPS, don't rent cars from Avis, and you can't fly anywhere with American Airlines. That's quite a boycott!! So...what are YOUR thoughts?

I was victorious. I'd like to thank my family, all of the fans, my sand wedge, and my friends, Josh Wilson, Josh Hargon, and Doug Glenn!! I tore them up with an 89 on a very windy day!! It feels good to come out on top!!

Actually, the day was great. I enjoyed spending some time with my brother and the golf was good too. Now if I can only figure out a way to beat my dad...

Friday, April 11, 2008

Okay, it's not an actual cup, but it IS some fierce competition. My brother is coming into town this weekend with his family. I'm looking forward to it because we always have a great time when we're together. Unfortunately, we are all very busy, so we don't see each other as often as we'd like. However, when we do get together, it's always fun.

What's not fun (or I should say--not fun and games) is our fierce golf competition. The three of us (Doug, my dad, and myself) LOVE to beat each other on the golf course. AND, my situation right now is that the last time I played my brother and the last time I played my dad...I lost. That would place me squarely in third place out of three. NOT GOOD!!

SO, tomorrow morning, bright and early, I'll be trying to work my way into second place by beating the stuffing out of my brother. May not happen, but I'm going to give it my best (may even cheat a little if necessary!!)

Thursday, April 10, 2008

I am officially a seminary student again! I'm not sure that I'm happy about that, but I'm excited about what God has in store. I'll begin D.Min classes in July. More updates to come...

OH, and...my letter from the D.Min office at New Orleans said, "Congratulations! The ProDoc Committee meet yesterday and has approved your acceptance into the D.Min program." Anyone else see anything wrong with that? No big deal...just a typo, but it did make me laugh!!

I'm stealing from my friend Neil here...but I think this is a good way to rehash:

Our computer kept messing up last night. Joshua and I had a long talk about that this morning and he's defragmenting right now to see if that will help--HOPEFULLY!!! That gave us trouble in the worship service, but it was still good in spite of the problems. I absolutely love the song, "Breathe," which we sang last night. I love crying out to God that I'm DESPERATE for Him because that's how I feel so many times.

With "Desperate" in mind, that brings me to my message. Yesterday had been a CRAZY day. It seemed like I went from one meeting to the next without a moment in-between. I was either meeting with someone in person or over the phone ALL DAY, so when I finally sat down yesterday afternoon to start putting my thoughts down on paper for the sermon, I knew I didn't have much time. Lo and behold...Gordan Allen that I was supposed to be meeting with later shows up...about 45 minutes early. I was really glad he was there early because he was giving us the final details on our sanctuary renovation process that's coming up, but I still hadn't gotten anything on paper for my message. I got him settled in where we were going to meet with him and started zooming back to my office when Ms. Allie said I had a phone call.

Needless to say, by the time the day was over and it was time for me to preach...I literally had a post-it note in my bible with the point of the message and that was all. I had been thinking about the message since Monday, but I didn't have ANYTHING on paper to refer to. Last night was one of those nights that I was praying...God just get me through this...and I think He came through (as if I should be surprised.) We had a good night! I'm so glad that God covers over our shortcomings!

That little song is catchy when you hear it. It's been in my head for over 14 years now...wow, can it be that long!!! However, I never realized the truth of that song until recently.

My little boy really does want to be just like his dad. When I put my hand up on the wall to brush my teeth, he does the same. When I cross my feet, he does the same. He wants to sit in my chair. Even when I don't know it...he's watching me! I really don't know if I'm up to it. Can I really be a good enough example of living for God that Jonah can follow my example? That's a tall order. I find myself being VERY careful of my behavior, my habits, my thoughts, my tone of voice...EVERYTHING!!

God help me to be an example to my little boy that when he does what his daddy does...he'll be following Jesus!!

Monday, April 7, 2008

My wife talked me into blogging. As if people don't hear enough from me on Sundays. However, I want this to be different. I want to share the lighter side of Dan here. I hope you'll come back often to see some thoughts about my life, my family, my thoughts, and what God has been teaching me lately.